Luseysi

Luseysi is the central figure behind The Pale Faith. Little is known of Luseysi (the Pale, the Blessed, the Great Prophet) prior to the Aulesiri Ruin. It is said that before the Ruin, he was but a mountain hunter in the Old Mountains, living in a crag as a hermit. In some of his earlier teachings, he told his followers that he had a family and that they were "swallowed by the earth" when he was a small boy. He was a young man when the Ruin came. As shattering explosions shook the earth, he emerged from his cave and attempted to run to the nearest village. Stones and magma swept over his path, and he was forced to climb jagged rocks, one after another, before scrambling to safety. The village was gone. Alone, and with the sun dimming, he trekked across a vast steppe, attempting to find others.

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It was during Luseysi's trek that he was visited in the cold night by the Pale Voice (or, Mouth of the Moon). The voice guided him to the remaining Aulesiri, village by village. It also gave him the Light of the Jade Moon, a formidable power that could be used to pathfind, channel, and engage in precognition. To all others, the pale-green moon of the world, blocked out by the ash clouds, could no longer be seen. But Luseysi could see it clearly and vividly with his now-green eyes, and could direct its light in such a delicate, graceful fashion that he was regarded as a living god by the Aulesiri villages he found. Indeed, his first feat of remarkable power was the unfailing, precise discovery of numerous villages, whether they be trapped by stone and emaciated, or fleeing packs of wolves, their children left behind. All across the vast steppe of old Euleshun, Luseysi guided the Aulesiri to the coast. He dispersed ash clouds with his use of the light of the moon. He formed defensive walls around thousands of people as vicious creatures descended upon the Aulesiri migration in a fit of primal survival. He melted the neverending browning snows and warmed the earth with his touch. The Aulesiri people were protected and guided by his powers of the moonlight. The pale-green of his essence wisped through the apocalyptic reality of Euleshun, and comforted the ailing people.

Perhaps Luseysi's greatest feat was the forming of a light bridge between Euleshun and Jyotnun. When the Aulesiri people finally arrived to the cold of north Jyotnun, their migration was only half complete. Still, even the cold lands of northern Jyotnun were a respite from the destruction of Euleshun, and many Aulesiri opted to settle. Luseysi's own migration was far from over.

Luseysi had maintained much of his original self during the Aulesiri escape from Euleshun; it was during that time that details about his personal life were shared more commonly. After landfall in Jyotnun around 50 A.R. ("After the Ruin"), however, Luseysi's personality became more erratic and unpredictable. He was rarely violent, but instead suffered nightmares and visions of such supreme clarity that he would sometimes be catatonic for weeks on end, able to survive without a single crumb of sustenance. When he awoke from such states, he had a clear purpose, and often took sojourns into the wilderness, or traveled to places where the Aulesiri had begun to settle, sometimes even backtracking from where the light still guided his main entourage.

It was thus not until after landfall in Jyotnun that other powerful spiritual figures associated with Luseysi began to emerge. At first called his "companions", they were figures who Luseysi saw in visions and subsequently actively sought out. The first was Imisau, and more followed. He bestowed upon them specific powers and duties, and they were later called his "eyes and arms".

During this time, Luseysi would also endure violent seizures; upon awakening from these nightmares, he would have a different face and voice entirely, and would tell stories and speak of the future. All of these faces were practically white in complexion, so alien and disturbing to the Aulesiri followers, but they nonetheless regarded those faces as personifications of other spiritual figures (aside from the flesh-and-blood ones, such as Imisau). Their often-obscure teachings would later be codified by the Order of the Moon. When Luseysi had transformed back to his original self after these experiences, he clairvoyently knew each spirit he had channeled, and spoke of them in more detail to his followers. From landfall in Jyotnun to the founding of the Pale City, these events would become commonplace.

Luseysi lived to establish the Order of the Moon and help codify much of what he had spoken of, both in and out of his trance-like states. These came to be known as "teachings of the moon", though they have adopted a dozen other names since their original conception. There are many of these teachings covering a multitude of subjects, but most of them describe the omniscence and immortality of the moon itself, and how the moon is both a physical and spiritual entity. According to Luseysi, the moon created the earth and bestowed upon it the Aulesiri people, blood of its own pale-green nature, to raise the earth in the moon's likeness. The moon is also the master of the stars and the fabricator of the blackness of space, lord of all physical domain, time, and thought. Many of these teachings are cryptic and hard to follow, and have been interpreted in a variety of ways by the Order of the Moon and its diverse priesthood. Teachings about topics such as the moon's origin are particularly vague: "Before the pale-green, there was only the featureless slop: silent, shapeless, solitary. It eventually served as the mother of the jade moon."

The pale-green light of the moon guided Luseysi and his swelling entourage to the now-Blessed Valley, hundreds of miles south of the light bridge that had been formed (and now dissipated) between Euleshun and Jyotnun. It is said that the voice of the moon had long told Luseysi of the Blessed Valley and its jadeite deposits. The Pale City was founded in 290 A.R., and Luseysi would die ~10 years later, but not without a son in his likeness. By the time Luseysi died, he had transformed completely, both physically and mentally. His skin had become pale as limestone, and his eyes as green as nephrite.

Luseysi eventually become pale-skinned (skin as white as pearls) and green-eyed (eyes as green as the jade moon). Additionally, his hair was an ivory black. As such, his ancestors share these traits -- but only via the male line (so only males can spread these traits to their children; female relatives to Luseysi cannot transfer these traits to their children, even though such female blood relatives to Luseysi will themselves display these traits).